Baby Arlo, five weeks

It was so nice to have gorgeous little Arlo in the studio! And his lovely parents Chloe and Elliot, I should add, although they weren’t quite as cute and snuffly.

Arlo obviously isn’t old enough to sit unaided so we used an old trick from the Victorian era for some of the shots of him alone – by throwing a piece of black velvet over the head of a parent you can make them disappear, voila, and then you have a supported, comfortable, safe baby. In this age of Photoshop it’s a bit easier to extend the background and disguise said parent: check out this article for some old photographs that include ‘ghost mothers’. Sometimes they’d use a patterned piece of fabric to cover them, because otherwise Mum could end up looking like the Grim Reaper. :)